This relates to integrated circuits and more particularly, to methods and systems for designing and fabricating integrated circuits.
Integrated circuits are often formed with processing circuitry that can perform desired logic functions and that is clocked using clock signals having a particular clock frequency. In a typical scenario, a logic designer uses computer-aided design tools on a circuit design system to generate a logic design for the processing circuitry so that the processing circuitry performs the desired logic functions. Once the circuit design system has generated the logic design, the logic design is provided to fabrication equipment that fabricates an integrated circuit that performs the desired logic functions as specified by the generated logic design.
Each logic design generated by the circuit design system can be characterized by a performance metric such as an efficiency value associated with the efficiency of that particular logic design. In conventional circuit design systems, the clock frequency of the clock signals received by the processing circuitry is pre-determined based on a fixed design standard such that all of the logic designs that are generated by the circuit design system are generated to implement that fixed clock frequency. In other words, the clock frequency of the processing circuitry is set as a fixed constraint while determining the logic design to be implemented on the processing circuitry.
However, in practice, a given logic design can exhibit different efficiencies for different clock frequencies, such that a particular logic design will not always exhibit optimal efficiency at the fixed standardized clock frequency. Processing circuits that are generated by the conventional circuit design system can thereby have sub-optimal efficiencies due to the imposition of the fixed clock frequency constraint during design of the processing circuits.
It may therefore be desirable to provide improved systems and methods for designing and fabricating processing circuitry.